Chapter7

Eureka!

Edward Elric

The numbers before him were blurry. Twitching, Edward Elric pulled the notebook closer to him and cursed. It was no use, his eyesight was inconveniently worse and his head ached, like a drum throbbing in the back of his skull. It was still early and he had only just begun his calculations for the experiment.

Pained, he rubbed his eyes and reached into the breast pocket of his olive-green vest. As much as he hated to admit it, his father was right, he needed the spectacles to read and in time, he'd need them to see at all.

Yet, going blind was the least of his problems. He groaned, dropping his throbbing head in his arms and ran his fingers though his hair. His body ached, and every muscle pleaded him to drag himself back into bed and stay there, but the call of freedom drove him to ignore it and return his attention to his studies. Painfully he lifted his head and

stared at the pages.

The experiment was simple: he set up the conditions to measure and record Noa's psychic abilities. If she duplicated the results in controlled situations, he would prove the existence of psychic powers.

It was the beginning of a much larger and more complicated project. And regrettably, he was aware it was a task that would take years to achieve.

Tapping his notebook, he double checked his measurements and reworked his hypothesis. Everything had to be accurate and so far, his calculations were in order. He just had to go over and calibrate his equipment.

"Edward, you are pale." Noa said. He hadn't noticed her enter the lab. Wearily he looked over his shoulder, surprised to find she stood behind him and he had no idea how long she had been there. "This can wait until tomorrow." She dropped her hand to his forehead and slipped it down to his cheek.

Edward felt his cheeks warm and awkwardness washed over him. "I'm fine," he shrugged off her fingers and closed his notebook. "I'm ready to start."

"You have a fever." Noa ignored him. She stepped away as he came to his feet and turned to face the lab. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Noa fold her arms. "Edward Elric, you have been working non-stop for two weeks. You barely remember when it is time to eat, and Alphonse says you have not been sleeping very long or well."

"I'll rest after the experiment is done." Edward gestured for her to sit, and glanced around the room. It almost reminded him of working for the state military.

The lab was the distillation of a small fortune into the highest experimental technology money could buy. Central to this work was the electroencephelograph, derived from an extension of Hans Berger's designs. This traced the activity of Noa's brain on a constantly-unrolling sheet of graph paper, seven delicate needles with integral pens scribbling wavering lines that opened mysterious windows

into the workings of the mind.

Edward gestured to a chair near the device. The woman looked at him skeptically, then sat in the chair and closed her eyes. "If it is important to you, I promise I will get some rest when this is all done." Edward gently said. He methodically began fastening electrodes in a regular array across her scalp. She had adamantly refused to have her hair cut, and it had taken Edward an additional several days to devise a conductive gel which would work even with considerable hair between the electrode and the scalp.

Noa opened her eyes and gazed around the room. "These machines, they are amazing."

Edward weakly smiled. They had collected quite an assortment of gadgets. Winry would have been envious. To think, he was the Alchemy geek, and in the past had scoffed at machine engineering.

Yet now he was in a room surrounded by machines and ironically he now needed them to make his Alchemy work. What would Winry say?

Huge glass and ceramic insulators alternated with shining coils of copper wire, wound in geometrically precise forms to channel the power of the electron. Tesla coils reared circular heads above conical coils, and at the far end of the room towered a sixteen-foot Van De Graaf generator, capable of generating a seething storm of artificial

lightning, millions of volts of electrical charge. These were part of Edward's attempts to probe the very makeup of matter through atomic forces – accelerating protons and other particles through the symmetrical glass and metal tubing attached to these electrical generators.

Some distance from the accelerator setups were retorts, coiling glass tubes for condensation, distillation, fractionalization of materials. Bunsen burners, compressors, furnaces, crucibles in confusing yet ordered array, the tools both of the chemist and the alchemist of old.

Finished with the electrodes, Edward whipped the sticky stuff off with the hanky in his breast pocket and inspected a humming device to Noa's left. He was rather pleased with it. He had constructed it himself. It used electromagnetic forces to shake a series of numbered metal spheres. The spheres shuddered and banged into each other, rattling

randomly around an enclosure, until by chance one would happen to roll in such a way as to complete a contact between two wires. When that happened, a trapdoor opened for a moment below that ball, which dropped down a chute and rolled out into view in a trough below.

That was the test device. Noa was to predict which number would appear next in the trough. As the shaking and movement of the balls was essentially random, there was no scientific way to predict it, and there were no less than 500 numbered spheres. It was barely possible, though unlikely, that she could randomly guess one of them. Guessing two or more in a row would be strong evidence for her precognition. If she could manage a significant string of correct predictions, and replicate those predictions over time, he would have the hard evidence he wanted.

"Are you ready?" He asked, leaning with his hands curled around the arms of the chair.

She nodded and closed a hand around his. "Yes, I'm ready."

Stepping back, Edward activated the sphere dispenser. "What is your prediction?"

Noa heaved a breath, and shied a glance to the trough. She appeared unsure, even worried. "427"

Was it a guess? Edward straightened. He liberated a notebook from his desk and' flipped it open to an empty page. At the top of the page he recorded the date, the subject's behavior and her prediction.

A clank turned his gaze back to the trough. The sphere rolled to the end and rattled against steel. Edward took it in his hands, and turned it over in his hand. The numbers 427 were printed across its surface.

"284" Noa's voice said. It was detached and her face was staring off into space as if she was in a trance. "398, 21, 156…" her voice became a eerie chant that goosepimpled his flesh and raised the hair on the back of his neck.

Edward froze, gaze shifting to the encephalograph as its pens etched a flurry of lines across seemly endless sheets of paper. Checking his calculations, he confirmed his suspicions. Red and blue lines wove in and out of each other, in an explosion of peaks and valleys.

He seized the paper, studying the data, barely aware of the clunking of spheres. "Hmm, that seems in order." He glanced over to Noa. "Subject appears to be in a trance, and I am seeing noticeable theta and gamma wave activity."

"12, 128,34,404…"

She didn't hear him. Edward crossed over to her side, nose wrinkling as he studied the woman. Her smooth flesh was pale with dots of sweat saturating her bow as her ghostly voice continued to drone out more numbers.

Quickly making note of her condition and responses, Edward regarded the trough. A chill swept him.

All the numbers in the tray matched her predictions. It was true. He was dying…

Edward stared blankly at his notes, lost in thought. All this time he assumed he had time, but things were different now. Suddenly an unseen force was draining his very life away, making it imperative for swift action. If he died, Alphonse would never be free, and for that reason,

Edward Elric made a decision. He would find a way of sending Alphonse home before he died.

He drew a breath, turning his gaze to Noa dimly aware she was speaking to him.

"So we are finished with the experiment?" Noa asked, blinking up at him wearily. She ran her fingers though her hair, wincing as goo clung to her fingers.

Edward shoved his notebook in his suit jacket's pocket and removed his glasses. "Ja, for the day." His headache had grown worse, and he wondered if it was a symptom of whatever ailment he had. He ran a hand though his hair, feeling a sheet of sweat coat his fingers. He had a

fever. "I don't have time to be ill." He told her, weakly smiling.

"Take it easy then, let Alphonse and I help you with your work." Noa pleaded. "Please, Edward."

He couldn't answer her. Edward Elric rarely depended on others to do things for him. He heavily sighed and quietly removed the electrodes from Noa's hair.

How could he be dying? Some disease, but what? It explained the bruising and his exhaustion, as well as the faintness. He felt a pang of fear, mixed with grief. It was not the fate he wanted. "This is the world of science." He said absently. "I can't believe they wouldn't have studied and diagnosed similar conditions."

Noa watched him curiously. Taking a towel from the counter, she came to a stand, and tried to rub the gel out.

"Edward? What do you mean?"

Yes, it made sense. Perhaps there was hope, perhaps he could find a cure. If he properly diagnosed his condition and treat it, he would live. Didn't they say if his mother received help in time she would have lived? Edward felt his heart lift. He didn't need to waist away like his mother, in fact, he wouldn't. He would find a cure, and live for Al….

And Noa.

The woman looked at him with moist brown eyes. She dropped a hand to his shoulder. "The Kaiser knows doctors. He will give you the best care…"

"Never." Edward shrugged her hand off and dashed over to his bookshelves. He ran his fingers along the binds, searching. He had to have a medical journal somewhere. Why wouldn't he, Kaiser supplied all sorts of reference books and understanding the working of the body was

necessary for human transmutation or Alchemical medicine. One book drew his eye. Edward pulled it out, and studied it. It was an anatomical encyclopedia. Frustrated he waved the book in his hand, and dropped it to the table. "Gray's Anatomy, Noa, I need a book, a medical journal. I have to research my symptoms."

"But Edward, you can't treat yourself!" Noa came to her feet and gripped the towel in hand between her fingers. "Edward, I am so sorry…"

"Of course I can treat myself! And what is there to be sorry for? I am dying, but I am not dead yet! This is the world of science, Noa. There must be a cure for my condition…" He paused planting his hands on his hips, and stared at the shelves overhead. Most of the books were on the cutting edge sciences of magnetism, radio waves, and electricity.

Besides the Gray's anatomy, he had a few books on the human brain. He had no medical books in the lab. Anything useful would be in the library or his study. "Shit."

Noa's eyes flared wide. "Edward…" Noa's lips trembled and her dark eyes teared. "Please listen to me…"

Edward shook his head. He raised a hand abruptly and brought it down. "Enough!" There would be no way; he'd allow the Kaiser of any of his quacks near him. "No, where I come from I would be perfectly capable of devising a cure with Alchemy. I will find one here." He turned abruptly and stalked passed Noa. "Wash up! I've got work to do! Meet me in my study, and bring my slides and a medical kit!"

Without waiting for her answer he was out the door.